Monday, January 11, 2010

Heard About the Developer, 25, with Exclusive Rights to East St. Louis Riverfront?

In October the East St. Louis City Council gave Fredrick Scott, 25, of California, the exclusive negotiation rights to develop some 1,100 acres along the Mississippi River. Those rights extend for six months. And while the deal doesn't provide Scott any immediate money, it could land him some serious bank should he successfully recruit new development.

So who is Fredrick Scott? According to his LinkedIn profile, he is the "youngest African-American hedge-fund manager in the world" and "a
successful entrepreneur and real estate broker." He's also a "savvy rising star" and former Army Ranger, according to the networking website.

www.linkedin.com/in/fredrickscott

Now it seems Scott is looking to add another title to his impressive resume: finance manager of East St. Louis. And he's only asking for $300K in return.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, Scott has asked that
East St. Louis officials appoint him to the office and pay him a
salary of $300,000. In return, Scott says he'll come up with a $30-million
capital infusion for the city.

Seems to be just a couple problems with that proposal:

The city is flat broke and may not be able to pay any of its employees this month.

Scott was already supposed to bring capital infusion to the city.
That's why they gave him the exclusive negotiations rights to develop the property.

Scott and East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks Jr. declined to discuss the finance manager position with the News-Democrat last week.

"It's unfortunate that somebody has provided that information to you.
That was supposed to be confidential information," Parks told the paper.